A Counting School - Hardcore Chartered Accountancy

You thought we were gypsies before? Now accountants have dedicated party buses

Krupo — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:02:00 GMT

The party bus at Bay and King: wheeled debacle or the most brilliant application of motor coaches ever?

As much as I'd like to think I'm just making jokes concerning the amount of travel auditors often experience, Mark Lee has brought our attention to a perhaps long overdue concept: AllABoardroom, a portable meeting room now available in the UK for the truly dedicated road warriors.

It all makes me keep thinking back to a certain movie's caravan camp; with St. Patrick's Day upon us, perhaps Irish Travelers of the Business World may be a more apt term for the denizens of Audit Land.

Regardless, now you can now book a tour bus for rockstar accountants. How much does it rock?

It has an onboard fireplace. And, naturally, a bar.

Interestingly, the fee for drinks is donated to charity. Whether this is done purely to be charitable or to make compliance with British liquor laws easier - are there really any laws regarding liquor in the UK, anyway? - is perhaps a moot point but worth noting if you plan on undertaking a compliance audit one day and want to keep your mind sharp to that sort of thing.

Thinking about random legal compliance issues in your downtime is an occupational hazard, sorry.

And hence the joyous embrace of any and all holidays, or other opportunities to celebrate everything in life.

Above: Not Irish Travelers. Neither is it a party bus. But it'll do as a slapdash illustration of the awe and wonder.

Much like a Traveler without recourse to a trip home for supplies, a good auditor will have an audit bag that contains the essentials: a power supply, laptop, external mouse, and some assorted stationery items. When a client's colleague walks up and asks for white-out, it may end up being you who has one in the audit kit, since you will seemingly take everything on the road with you. What good is having a liberally stocked supply room in the home office, if you're rarely there and need your supplies in the field?

Speaking of that home office, even nomads set-up camp, presumably returning to certain favorite places where resources are in abundance - like sticky notes and fresh pens.

In AuditLand there's an equivalent: "hotelling."

A post explaining the phenomenon of "hotelling" is long overdue, with its attendant joys and challenges. Stories will soon follow.

But until then, a little pat on the back: having seemingly been the only one to put this in writing, I noted with great pleasure that searching for "gypsies of the business world" takes you to this article at www.krupo.ca.

And now this can be celebrated by booking a party bus for the professional crowd. Brilliant, albeit a bit pricey for those without truly epic rockstar budgets.

Getting noticed: the cure for the "woe is me, I am unassigned" pity party

Krupo — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:08:00 GMT

Some people are working over 50 hours a week.

Others barely have a reason to come in to the office, because they're just going to chat with their friends and make four trips down to Tim Horton's.

Is this curious phenomenon limited to just accounting firms? Maybe not, but who cares - if this next quote represents "you," then you're Doing it Wrong:

"I also have a lot of nonchargeable time when i'm unscheduled..i sometimes ask 1 or 2 managers(since there are lots in the office and i don't know most of them) but usually have no result..i'm concerned that this will reflect poorly on my performance evals..what are people's experience on this?"

This is courtesy the comments to a blog post on people underreporting their time. I'm pretty sure I've railed against stupidly obeying the budget instead of documenting reality, but that's not where we're ranting today.

Instead, let's deconstruct that scenario.

The comment writer doesn't come up with a pseudonym, but instead appears as "Anonymous."

Not to be too cute about it, but if you're anonymous at work, that's your problem diagnosed in one second.

There are different ways to get noticed. This just happens to be a very effective method.

It's difficult when you're new and possibly timid, but you want to make contact with as many people as possible. How did you get hired, anyway? Didn't you say you're some sort of sociable overachiever who does whatever they can to help the team get the job done?

What happened to that bubbly personality? Did one busy season knock the wind out of your sails?

Shake it off.

Walk the halls, and visit the other floors. You probably have dozens of managers around who are tearing their hair out trying to get work done on time.

And they might not even have time to talk to you. But there are people reporting to them who may need help - seniors who can assign tasks to you.

And if your group is just dysfunctional and has nothing that can be delegated to you - I'm going to assume you work in a big firm - then look around further. Try the advisory, M&A, tax and actuarial groups.

If you have a friend at work who's similarly unassigned but is better at approaching other people, tag along with them for an adventure walk. Use chances when running into people randomly in the halls to tell them you're looking for work. After introducing yourself and making a good impression. Go so far as to share your business card with them.

The kid that asks for work even though they're not even in my department? That's the attitude I'm looking for - and if I have a pile of work and need to delegate the easy bits to a junior, guess who I'll contact - the one who sits around staring at Facetube wondering whether they'll survive at the job? Or the energetic person who hustles, gives me their business card because I might forget their name even if I remember their face, and sends a follow-up message letting me know that they're still unassigned and ready to help?

Even if I don't have work to give them, my friends may be overworked and looking for someone outside our small groups own radar. Word gets around, you get work, your productivity stats go up, and everyone's happy.

It's odd that you have to hustle for work once you already have a job, but that's just another element you get used to working in this field. And in some bizarre ways, it can be fun.

How else would I be able to say that I've once tied the financial statements of a company reporting their year-end financial results in Spanish?

The ICAO redeems my faith in humanity, and the accounting profession in Ontario

Krupo — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:19:00 GMT

No doubt in direct response to my last post, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario has just announced a wonderfully charitable and clever rule change for CA students who aren't currently employed by a CA firm.

Clearly the snark worked its magic

Until now, if you wanted to write the CA accounting exams in Ontario, you had to be employed by an approved CA training office - a "CATO".

With the recent wave of layoffs and the resulting shortage of vacancies at CATOs, it's been understandably difficult for many people to sign up, get their work experience, and the associated ability to sit for the UFE, and the qualifying CKE and SOA exams.

And the ICAO has realized this, admitting just as much in their official announcement:

"In recognition of the difficulty that a significant number of otherwise qualified individuals may be having in securing employment in a CA Training Office (CATO) during the current economic downturn, the Institute’s Council recently approved the introduction of a new Section 210 (Exemption from Employment Requirement) in Regulation I, A regulation in respect of students.
The new Section 210 provides, at the Registrar’s discretion, the granting of exemptions from the requirement to be employed in a CATO for the purpose of registering as a student with the Institute, as a condition for eligibility to write the Core-Knowledge Examination (CKE) or to enroll in the School of Accountancy. This provision is a temporary measure that will be available in times of economic downturns to assist prospective students who are unable to obtain employment with CATOs."

Kudos to the ICAO for thinking ahead.

They can't magically conjure up jobs for students, but by not turning a blind eye to the plight of current CA students, they're ensuring that there will continue to be a ready supply of young talent ready to replace the legion of baby boomers heading towards the exits as their retirement ages approach. It takes away a metric ton of stress that would be on the shoulders of anyone who just spent four years studying to become a CA, only to get sidetracked when they couldn't find a position in their field to complete their exams.

The requirement to get real job experience before you become a "full" Chartered Accountant doesn't disappear, it merely gets postponed until you can score a job. Arguably this will be easier once you have passed your exam.

Pessimists will decry this as a potential shift in how the profession gets its talent, forcing students to write the exam before they can land a job. I'm not too concerned about that scenario - I'm going to give the Institute the benefit of the doubt and assume they'll probably remove this emergency measure once the job market stabilizes. How long until the "emergency exception period" window stays open is, therefore, an interesting question. I'll bet it'll stay open at least until the fall of 2010 to allow everyone a chance to write the UFE. At that point, the hard decisions will have to be made: did the layoffs stop, and is the job market "hot" enough again to return to normal?

It's something worth keeping an eye on, especially when you're juggling the demands of a job search with studying, but the juggling act is also something you should put on hold in the weeks leading up to the major exams to allow yourself to concentrate on passing first!

Full details on how to apply for this special status are available on their site, and you can call the Student Records group at (416) 969-4322. I like calling when I have questions rather then sending e-mails since they're quite responsive and friendly at the Institute.

Good luck to those still searching!

CA Magazine: Afraid of the "L" word!

Krupo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:49:00 GMT

This month's CA magazine features a mention of Stefano Picone, CA, founder of mycasite, but before you can read that you may read the following unrelated trainwreck of a paragraph - read it and guess what went wrong here:

"Firms only interested in training CA students who wish to practise public accounting but lack the audit hours to do so should also consider hiring experienced CA students who have already completed the required chargeable audit hours at another firm. CA students can complete their practical experience requirements for qualification at your firm and may be eligible to practise public accounting. The current economic situation has resulted in the availability of a number of experienced CA students ready and able to take on new opportunities."

Did you see it?

Avert your eyes children!

Did they just casually say "current economic situation"?

I'm sorry, I think the editors must have accidentally hit "find and replace" on the more technical term EPIC SMACKDOWN OF LAYOFFS.

The scarring from cutbacks takes a while to heel. It leaves people more finely attuned to what they've experienced, even after things have stablized, so that's no doubt what they saw in that casual paragraph.

May the brain trust suggest rewording that paragraph to something a little more direct?

"Do you need staff? Don't worry - a fair-value adjusted consignment of kids a year out of university were released back into the job market like under-sized sea bass last year, in a wave of firings and layoffs to respond to a recession that had already run its course."

To be fair, it's not like CA magazine hasn't mentioned layoffs before - three of the five hits in a search of the online magazine site came up in 2009. Oh wait, one of those hits is a duplicate, so it's actually two of four unique occurrences of the word.

And they don't really address the pain of students who thought they had it made, but suddenly found themselves floundering. Well, at least they did mention the resources available at My CA Site which survived some silliness with the ICAO while at the same time getting official recognition of a sort from CA Magazine.

Perhaps you wouldn't even consider the layoffs epic - if you managed to survive them.

After all, fortunately things have stabilized since the complete disaster known as 2009's job market for CA students. But even if your job survived the cuts, there's now not enough people to manage the remaining workload. Your newfound job security is no doubt of the perverse kind which no doubt makes you confusedly exclaim "Um, hurray...?"

So jeers for the timid "corporatese" language, but kudos to CA Magazine for recognizing young CAs making their own way in the world, and for being brave to climb ladders tall enough to be able to take a photo of Stefano and then print it.

What's been keeping you busy?

Krupo — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:13:00 GMT

This image pretty much summarizes the last two or three weeks.

It's been a wild a joyful blur.

Between supervising ICAO low-income tax clinics, hitting multiple deadlines with aplomb and celebrating Canada's Gold, there's barely enough time to go skiing.

Last chance for me is likely today. The one big downside I have to admit is that it's not exactly easy to just disappear in the middle of the week to go replicate the feats of snow sports excellence we got to enjoy last month.

Unless you plan for a winter vacation. Maybe next year.

When I see a car perfectly painted the colours of our great land, I wonder, "did they specifically pick those colours knowing one day they'd be parading up and down Yonge St. after a stunningly perfect Canadian hockey victory?"

Canada wins gold! Which Big Four firm is winning?

Krupo — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:01:00 GMT

Congratulations to Alexandre Bilodeau for bringing a glorious golden victory to Canada's western shores!

In tribute to his spectacular mogul run, I offer some Big 4 snow sport action.

The snow profile above, sadly, is a little too similar to that in Vancouver this month. Who would've expected mild weather in February - aside from anyone who's ever visited or moved to B.C. for that very reason?

Alexandre's victory reminded me the fall recruiting season - yes I'm going there - where two of the Big Four firms trumpeted their involvement with the Winter Games.

But before we get into who's doing what on an official level, let's see what's going on from Google's point of view, searching for "FIRMNAME" and "Vancouver Olympics:

PwC: they're running a study to figure out whether or not the Olympics end up breaking even or perhaps even generating a profit for the hosts. How very stereotypical for accountants, I know.
KPMG: a profile on Executive VP and Deputy CEO Dave Cobb, a KPMG alumnus. We'll revisit this below.
Ernst & Young: auditors of VANOC's 2004 Financial statements. Geekier than PwC perhaps?
Deloitte: the official sponsor, supplier in the "Professional Services ("Big Four firm")" category. Deloitte has the honour of providing all that sexy intellectual support which people expect Chartered Accountants to deliver.

So three of the four firms have had or continue to have direct involvement with the Games.

I'm a bit curious as to whether Deloitte scored the audit work once they became official sponsors.

Depending on how you interpret "Independence" rules, if you're sponsoring an event like this you're technically not independent and should refrain from accepting the engagement - Deloitte's well known for not selling off its consulting arm, which could lead to exactly this sort of risky scenario. Smart money says they wouldn't bother with the risk associated with the VANOC audit and the perception of a glaring conflict of interest, but I'll have to dig deeper - or wait for someone to point out to me who's actually doing the audit!

Going back to last September, I witnessed a fun bit of bragging going on at a recruiting event, which I'll paraphrase for you:

Deloitte recruiter: "We won the right to be the official sponsor of the 2010 Games! Dig our official 2010 Olympics logo on all our audit reports!"

E&Y recruiter: "We're also cool! We sponsored the Freestyle Ski Team because we wanted to be directly associated with Canada's winners! Dig our cheeky 'Team 2010' scarves!"

It may be the gold and silver medals talking, but I'd say so far the E&Y strategy seems to have panned out best, in terms of associating one's firm with Canada's success.

I have to disclose that I'm a big fan of any company which rides the Olympic celebration bandwagon without shelling out the big bucks for an official deal: that's also why I love my sweet Valentine's idea of giving me a Starbucks card with the word "Canada" on it on top of a Whistler-esque scene.

As you can imagine, she's both brilliant and lovely.

Of course, it's been just a few hours since the gold medal victory occurred, so a cursory search for corporate press releases trumpeting the success of the skiers yields nothing that actually mines that potential association.

I really thought these marketing people would have celebratory notices ready to shoot out like some many well shaken bottles of champagne, but in all fairness, freestyle ski Canada hadn't updated their site the day of victory either - it took until the wee hours of Monday morning to tonight either - they hadn't gotten around to reporting on Jennifer Heils' win and skipped straight to celebrating Alexandre's victory. I suppose they run a tight ship and everyone was out, deservedly, partying like crazy rather than rushing off to their computers to publish the news.

But once the congratulatory messages join the growing chorus of cheering Canadians, I certainly hope Deloitte and E&Y come up with something better than, say this.

I was viewer #14 when I loaded the clip - which is a dismal hitcount. In all fairness, there's an English version too, but it features the same Green Dot from their logo and only had 308 views at the same point in time.

CAs are doing more than just coming up with questionable Youtube clips though.

They're much more deeply enmeshed in the games than the aforementioned companies with their sponsorships and consulting jobs - they're actually running the show as well, as the KPMG link above already suggested.

What that link didn't reveal, however, is that three of VANOC's top executives are CAs. This CA Magazine profile is a pretty good read, especially worth checking out if you're still asking that classic question, "what can I do after my hell years working in AuditLand?"

The first paragraph is a decent enough intro: "Of the gazillion things clamouring for Terry Wright’s attention, the one topping today’s list is food — lots of it — enough for 1,200 hungry athletes at a time, three times a day, every day, for more than two weeks. Wright, a CA and the executive vice-president of services and games operations for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), is snowed under a daily avalanche of to-do lists. With a day as tightly wound as a Victorian lady’s corset, timing is everything and, at this moment, food has top priority."

Oh, I did wince when I read the line about a "corset," but then I probably am guilty of more than my fair share of cringe-worthy phrases, so we'll give them a pass on that.

Enough of the professional navel gazing - Go Canada!

Keep your head up!

Post Script: can someone please take this fence down or replace it with something much less ridiculous? I'm calling out the CA execs who should know better.

New guide: how to successfully wait in line at a Polish deli

Krupo — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:22:00 GMT

I really do wish the following tutorial was not necessary, but recent events have showed me that our education system has clearly failed us.

Now that there is an influx of people with absolutely zero life skills arriving in my neighbourhood, I have, as usual, found it thrust upon my shoulders to deliver a new guide on How to Survive Life.

Long-time readers will recall this site's brief master class on business travel.

The only thing it lacked to be considered the peer of workplace training was an introductory "You should be able to" Goals section, and a instructions at the conclusion regarding how to get your Continuing Professional Education credits. The new and improved courses delivered by A Counting School address those concerns.

How to successfully wait in line at a Polish deli

Upon completion of this course, you should able to:

know how to stand in line to be served in a Polish deli, and
not look like a cursed fool.

Lesson one: arrival.

Upon arrival, gauge the line. Find who was the last person, and make your way over to stand near them. Once they are served, you will be next.

If you are waiting to be served in a deli which is empty except for one other person, do not stand right by the doors where you entered if the available staff are at the opposite end of the store.

Instead, walk towards the middle of the store, and make yourself visible to the store's staff.

If the person who was ahead of you has to direct store staff towards you, you have failed. Complete your purchase as best you can; return tomorrow for more delicious food and to try again.

Lesson two: if necessary learn Polish, then use it

Even if the store recently hired Ukrainian, Romanian or other European shopkeepers, speak in Polish. It's the Correct Way.

They may respond in fractured English rather than Polish.

Ignore this and continue speaking in Polish as best you can. Bring a friend if necessary.

If you are not blessed with Polish friends, then Google translate has Polish-English translation modules to quickly get you up to speed in an awkwardly translated manner; My Life is Polish is also a rich source of contrived information to use in a vain attempt to try and fit in.

Lesson three: make sure you're in the right store

If you see a collection of products similar to that in the picture below, you are not in a Polish deli. You are in a garden supply store. Do not purchase, let alone eat, these items. They will sicken or kill you.

Leave immediately or you will have once again failed, and there will be no repeat option.

Lesson four: being ready to pay

Although many stores now accepted debit cards, don't hold up the line on busy shopping days.

Bring cash in the local currency, and save your plastic for your trips to IKEA.

Lesson five: waiting to pay

If there is someone ahead of you waiting to pay and your own purchases have been selected, the operative mode is for you to "stand there and stay quiet."

Once they have been served, have paid for their purchase, and collected their purchase, you will then be the focus of attention.

Example: you are watching the person ahead of you pay for their purchase. Money has changed hands, but their goods are still on the counter.

When the cashier asks, "do you need a bag," this question is not for you.

If you answer, you will show that you believe you are always the centre of attention.

Saying, "no," for example, will indicate inattentiveness at best, and gross egomania at worst. Saying "yes" is equally wrong, with the same consequences.

To successfully complete your shopping adventure, shut up, pay attention while you wait for your turn, and then complete your purchase.

If you failed, you may return tomorrow to try again. There is no limit aside from cost as to the number of times you attempt to pass this course, and your diet will continue to be rich in delicious food.

This completes this A Counting School internet based learning module.

To receive CPE credit for this course, visit your local Polish deli.

Bring cash.

Is Stolen Property taxable income? It is in the US! Amazing US tax law "Fail"/"Win"

Krupo — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:24:00 GMT

There's actually a rule on how to treat "stolen property" on your US tax return:

"Stolen property. If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner."

Someone reported a robbery?

As usual, I remind you that I'm not offering you any tax advice here - hire a professional if you need any of that. Of course, I don't think the target audience for this bit of tax law would even care about my disclaimer - they probably have other issues they should instead be dealing with.

What makes this funnier is seeing this featured on Failblog, although I stumbled upon it courtesy CPASuccess - thank guys, that's just epic. Possibly be an epic win rather than a fail depending on how you look at it, though.

I was going to say "I don't have the US tax code on hand to verify if this is in fact real," when I first saw it on their blog, but then I skipped back to the start of their post and then I realized CPASuccess actually linked to it, it's right there in Publication 17 - here's the hotlink. Yes, the Americans did decide to publish their tax code online.

Sweet!

The legends were true. I love how the US Government cleverly includes this "Other Income" line, which allows them to nail people for tax evasion if they somehow can't arrest them for the theft itself. How they would prove this is another matter altogether, but it makes you smile knowing that this is actually on the books.

Wouldn't it just be fitting to see a grassroots movement to declare certain US government 'subsidies' to be considered "theft" for this purpose to round out the tragic comedy here?

Can you get your 51 CA credits in a year and a half?

Krupo — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:34:00 GMT

If you started, say, an engineering program at one given university, could you switch partway through to a Chartered Accountant prep program instead in the same university's business school, and quickly get all the credits you need to graduate in a mere year and a half?

One of the regular CA 'commentators' on the blogs and forums, sardaukar - who does an excellent public service in opening people's eyes to the "hell years" that await them as CA students, incidentally - did just that, and people wondered how this is even possible.

Since I'm not really into Sudoku, and this is just the sort of "puzzle" I enjoy solving, I'll answer the question for the writer of comment #427.

The funny thing about this exercise is that when you review the list of courses needed - I include links at the end of this article - many courses will count for "3 hours" even though they're full year, or half year. That means you can't divide 51 by 3 and decide that means you have to take 17 full year courses. Neither does it mean you need 17 half credits - you have to review the whole list. In addition, the University of Toronto requires that you take 20 credits in total to graduate, unless you started in 2000, the last year I'm aware of where they allowed you to finish with a three year degree.

Remember that the example we're dealing with involves someone who took electrical engineering - doing a quick edit before hitting "publish", yes I do that, made me realize I missed one assumption on my first run. I left my mistake in the post, but you'll see my correction at the end of the post.

The army of Chinese elementary school students leaving class just before the clock struck 6 p.m. is an image that somehow pops up when thinking back to the Commerce program. Very strange reason given the distinct lack of jumpsuits and long days in the classroom.

Your typical engineer faces a situation where the extra credits to hit 20 are already accounted for - let's take a look at what you need year-by-year, along with comments.

First year: Economics, Intro Commerce and Math.

An engineer will have math accounted for no problem, and it'll be "hard math", not the "easier" Commerce math course with which you can squeak by, and still end up learning more than you will ever end up actually using. Running tally: 2 full year credits - excluding the math credit I presume you already got prior to deciding to become a CA. I was happy to get into the Commerce program without having to take the "Intro Commerce" full year program. I'm sure it's quite useful and helps give you a "big picture" of what you're getting yourself into, but I managed just fine without having my hand held by the Commerce administration in first year, thank you.

Second year: For the ECO side, Microeconomics and Stats. For the Commerce side, Financial Accounting, Intermediate Financial Accounting I, Management ("Cost") Accounting and the Legal Environment of Business ("Krupo's other favorite").
Plus add choice of side salad, fries or baked potato (translation: Financial Markets, Marketing, or Organizational Behaviour)

The "ECO" credits are both full year, the "MGT" credits (they call the course codes "RSM" after the wealthy Mr. Rotman's generous donation to the program, but like hell I'm going with the new taxonomy, I'm a product of the Old School) are all half credits. If I can still add despite being a CA, that's 4.5 more full year credits in total - running tally: 6.5 full year credits. Second year, if you were not rushing, would involve a nearly-full plate of courses in the Commerce program.

Two other fun facts about second year: the "Legal" course, which I loved, was previously a third year course, but for whatever reason they bumped it up earlier in the schedule, perhaps to encourage students to get to it sooner. Macroeconomics, to my dismay, is "strongly encouraged" but not required. That's a pity, and no doubt explains why someone in this stream would no longer be an automatic Economics Major. I find one of the strengths of becoming a CA is the strong background you get in Economics, which is why this development is such a shame.

Third year: Intermediate Financial Accounting II, Advanced Financial Accounting Topics, Managerial Accounting and Decision Making ("Advanced Cost Accounting"), Auditing I ("Welcome to AuditLand"), and Canadian Income Taxation I ("Personal Tax. Those of you at Big Four firms may never again touch this topic after the UFE unless you leave for a smaller firm or do your own/friends taxes later"). The Finance MGTs: Capital Market Theory and Intro to Corporate Finance

There you go - 3.5 MGT credits plus an ECO of your choice* - total 4.5, running tally 11 full year credits.

A few more observations are in order - shoving the fourth year taxation course into third year is pretty clever, as it makes Rotman's students more competitive when applying for summer jobs with accounting firms, having some formal tax learning under their belts. Good call there. Advanced Financial Accounting is another fourth year course moved up in the queue. Presumably to also get those interns and summer co-ops in a stronger position in their summer jobs, I guess.

Splitting the full year Finance course into two halves was a surprise to me. Perhaps the ICAO's requirements were behind this. If anyone knows I'd be happy to know more behind that split, but nothing shocking there.

*There's that little asterisk popping up like a delightful footnote warning you that we've stumbled upon something that mildly infuriates me more than dropping Macroeconomics from the "required" list, and that's the list of courses you can't take towards your requirement. That "your choice" excludes what looks like the entire list of third and fourth year Economic History courses, it seems. Perhaps one or two snuck through, but my quick review suggests that this is not the case. Maybe this was always the case; the Economic History credit I took perhaps not doubt counted only towards my history minor and economics major, but I consider discouraging Commies from studying the lessons of the past an idiotic path to embark upon.

My friends agreed that the Economic History course we happened to take - Canada's, in case you're curious - was one of the biggest eye-openers throughout university. The amount of intellectual maturity a course like that can bestow upon you is simply amazing - it's one of those courses you hope to experience. The kind that makes you challenge everything you're taught in the other "this is how things work, don't question it and you'll do fine" courses.

If anything, taking something that makes you really think should be made mandatory. Anyway, let's climb off the soapbox and check out what lies ahead.

Let's not even get me started on taking the third year "Business Information Systems" course down from "required" to "strongly recommended." CAs need to be strong on their IT skills. Or at least not laughably deficient. Removing this course from the "required" list is a poor choice, although it definitely brings you a half credit closer to your target of rushing through the courses to get your "51 hour requirement" with a minimum of fuss.

Fourth Year: Management Control, Auditing II ("Going deeper into Auditland"), Canadian Income Taxation II ("Welcome to the Suck"), Critical Thinking, Analysis and Decision Making ("U of T's UFE Prep course. Please do well here, and can one several of you please then get on the Honour Roll to get us to stop looking bad compared to Laurier?"), and Auditing and Information Systems ("Krupo's favourite")

Six more half credits, equal three full year courses. Running tally: 14 full year credits.

It would be 15, but as I stated above, but we'll assume you already nailed the first math requirement as an engineering student.

Come to think of it, an engineer would probably already have taken a "hard stats" course, so you're down to the need to take 13. Missing "Stats" is the mistake I alluded to at the start of my post - did you catch it? If so, you win five bonus points, now add them to your Hello Kitty scorebook.

Is the 1.5 Year Thunder Run possible?

So can you do it in 1.5 years? Last time I checked, you can take 2 courses per summer term - and possibly 3 with special permission, if they still allow you to apply for that option - and 6 credits per winter.

Let's hold off on the "special beg" and see what we get as a "normal" student: start in "summer one" with 2, take a "full winter" of 6, and "summer two" with another 2. That's 10 credits right there. Then take your last three credits during half a winter term.

Boom, CA credits accounted for in a "long" year and a half.

Definitely doable, albeit at the cost of a couple of your summers: you're ready to graduate since I've assumed your engineering courses gave you math, stats and the other five credits you needed, no doubt including the "science breadth requirement".

In fact, if you could petition to "overload" your schedule and take 3 courses in summer and 7 in the winter term, you could start the process in September and finish it in August the next year - basically one calendar year!

Even hardcore Engies used to killing themselves with long hours of coursework might, however, find that a bit on the ridiculous side. Not that I doubt they could handle the load, but the more realistic argument for "spreading" things out over the extra half year or so is the schedule of "pre-requisite" courses which would conspire to slow down your sprint through the course catalog.

Edit: after I finished writing up this post I saw a follow-up post by Sardaukar explaining that the economics course were done as the "Engineering electives" prior to entering commerce. That reduces the load of courses even further, with the first, second and third year courses off the radar - all you then need is 10 credits, done with two summers and a winter term.

Source?

If you're wondering where all this information came from, you just need to search for the ICAO's 51 course credit requirements, or just skip that step and check out my links to the ICAO's webpage for the Rotman Commerce program, which then leads you to the Rotman page itself. There's also a detailed ICAO page for people who don't feel like getting a "Specialist in Accounting" designation, but they'll be one course short of the full 51 credits - that list is here.

The ICAO is quite helpful for everyone in Ontario, mind you - a list of all other schools is also available here if you're attempting this from any other place in the province.

To answer one question I already heard, the secret to this approach is doing it at the same university. Generally speaking 100% of your credits are transferable within the same school. When you start jumping from school to school you encounter limits on the number of "transfer" credits which are eligible for your degree - some limit you to 5 which would make the above strategy, which relies on 7 credits, less feasible.

Is this approach insane? Well I didn't it, but it's both doable and has been done - I welcome your comments - click here to start leaving them.

If you got all the way to the bottom of this admittedly lengthy post you must be a superfan - so it's worth mentioning to you that I somehow got listed a while ago on the top accounting sites "magazine rack" at Alltop. Thanks, readers, for following along the adventure.

How much do first year CA students make in Canada?

Krupo — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:04:00 GMT

If there's one question students in university may find hard to ask - even though it echoes in their mind all the time - it's "how much am I going to earn if I get hired by a CA firm?"

If you're bold and outgoing and have friends who are already employed, this can be easier to find out. Otherwise, hopefully you'll stumble across either this post or the next forum as you turn to the all-knowing internet for answers.

Stefano at mycasite took it upon himself to contribute to our collective knowledge by conducting a public survey - you can see the results here and comment on the outcome in this dedicated forum.

He reports that the range of median salaries runs from $29,300 in Winnipeg to $45,000 in Toronto, with the size of the firm - big four or regional - playing less of a role than some might expect.

A fair question you may ask, though, is why there's a 50% increase just for moving over one province. This is explained by the fact that regional pay depends on the cost of living in various places across Canada, with Toronto being arguably the most expensive place.

Since we'll talk about quality of life, note that pretty much any CA student has it made, compared to people in most jobs in most of the world, unless you happent o enjoy pulling your own cargo rickshaw through insanely smoggy air.

The only area where the "cost of living" explanation falters is with the notable exception of Vancouver, which is notorious for being as expensive as Toronto - if not moreso - but with a market for CA students that ends up paying six thousand less.

Commerce and business students contemplating their future will not doubt weigh their options with this in mind. Chartered Accountants, having to take enough credits to earn a major in economics, no doubt keep in mind the fact that other professions compete for their strongest potential candidates, so wages have to track that accordingly.

Factors no doubt considered include the fact that knowledgeable students are aware that they'll be getting some significant benefits, both educational and financial from picking this route - you can roughly estimate the support an average CA student receives on their first UFE attempt in the neighbourhood of ten thousand dollars - as long as you pass on your first shot those costs are usually covered by your employer. Repeat writers suffer the burden of their additional attempts, which of course can add an additional level of stress to the exam writing attempts if you fixate yourself on it.

Money isn't everything though - a career in high finance will be more to your liking if you disagree though!

If you value your spare time, the quality of life you'll be enjoying in and outside of work is worth considering. Thinking back to the case of Vancouver, who wouldn't want to live with a milder climate, oceans, mountains and this year a Winter Olympiad too? Combine the higher population of people willing to live and work there with the conditions of the local economy and you get a more detailed explanation as to why average starting compensation is relatively lower there.

If you're really keen to crunch the numbers and come up with your own theories, Stefano was generous enough to share the raw survey data so you can do your own regression analysis or whatever else gets you freelance economists excited. Enjoy.

Chinese sales tactics: questionably awesome

Krupo — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:34:00 GMT

One of the many fun things about travelling around the world is finding out the rather different way people do common tasks.

Surprises abound, even with something as prosaic as saying "Back in 5 Minutes."

At least, that's what I assume this meant in a Chinese mall.

Similarly, the sales staff embrace different sales tactics, particularly depending on where you find yourself. There were three examples which stood out.

Hard ball haggling

At most markets and stores were haggling can happen, it's traditional for salespeople to lower their last price if you're walking away after a bit of haggling.

How odd to have the staff who will play hardball. You try and get a better price, but they don't want to budge.

So you leave - and they call after you twice, each time saying, "no, I'm not lowering the price any lower."

Sure, well thanks. Your sales pitch adds nothing to the conversation, bye. You walk away a third time only to get called again. "Ok, fine, we'll lower it."

Yay for persistence, I suppose. But on whose part in this case?

I've heard "no matter what, they're still making money." And that's no doubt true. But knowing that fact doesn't diminish the feeling of experiencing pure "win" when you are proved to be sufficiently stubborn to force some savings out of an immovable vendor.

Also pure win: the mandatory Santa Hat deployments in many stores.

Unexpected persuasion

When you're a male buying just about anything, you'll eventually encounter something a bit bizarre: the sales ladies' unique brand of flattery.

Big accounting firms talk a big story about the value you get from their consulting services. And sure, they do important, valuable work, but they're simply unable to compare with the tactics used to sell a jacket.

"You could be a model," they say.

Uh, sure.

That's not enough, of course.

They'll back up their words by smoothing out any wrinkles, and then - wait, what?

You feel a bit weird - "that was suspiciously close to feeling like a massage rather than a mere smoothing out of wrinkles. Do you not think this very pretty young woman I'm standing with who happens to be translating your Cantonese sales pitch into English for me might get a little jealous or something?"

Maybe she would be jealous too, if it wasn't for the fact that she almost fell over laughing so hard at what followed next.

Ignoring your prattling in English about how weird this is all getting, the expert sales staff continue to point out how nice you look in the mirror.

Next, they'll open up their product catalog, point to the model wearing the same outfit, and add "no really, you look great, just like this model in the photo."

Perhaps I do look great. But my judgment is now horribly clouded, so how should we continue?

Particularly if this is one of those stores where haggling isn't even permitted? Where's the fun in that?

Perhaps by fleeing with our wallet unopened?

Yes.

You've successfully escaped what you later realize was an excellent sales tactic to use on people who aren't paying attention to their own thoughts.

To answer your question, I didn't end up buying that particular jacket. That's because I was paying attention to the oddly effective sales pitch they were attempting.

Picking up on "subtle hard sells" is no doubt a skill you gain as you complete your CA training, or which you naturally acquire as an achievement from going on a few dozen such missions. Another skill an experienced CA gains when they hit the rank of senior managers is the ability to walk through walls, I'm told, but that's an urban legend to discuss another day.

The search for a good jacket ended well though: we found a much better one in an outlet store in Hong Kong a week later. And it being an outlet store, the sales staff only had one function: to discourage you from trying on the clothes.

Don't worry, it'll fit

Aside from being treated like a living mannequin, the third strangest quirk on display was the phenomenon of stores where "Fitting is forbidden."

Perhaps it's not unique to the region, but rather something I'm simply not used to, having been raised and spoiled in decadent Canada.

Fortunately, I immediately learned about one of the crucial loopholes: the rule does not apply, of course, if you're sneaky enough to find a corner to try on the item where they can't see you.

"Oh good it fits and I didn't get scolded for confirming that fact, time to buy," is hopefully the end state of this exercise.

I managed just that, found deals which were, of course, fantastic, and just this past weekend the jacket kept me toasty warm in -19 weather, which means that this inadvertent cultural immersion program was a great success.

My Life is Polish: rocks

Krupo — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:26:00 GMT

Completely random promotion: check out My Life is Polish - the site is hilarious, particularly if you are of Polish descent.

If you're not, I recommend keeping a bookmark to Google Translate's Polish to English engine to get some of the ~~jokes~~ painfully true stories.

Example: Today, my mom poured water into our shampoo bottle and said "no to wystarczy do konca tygodnia". MLIP"

The "punchline", automatically translated by Google is "no it is sufficient to the end of the week".

Close, Google, but the correct translation would be "now it will last until the end of the week."

You get the idea regardless, but I submitted a correction to Google anyway. It'll be interesting to see if they fix it down the road.

Some work even if you don't speak the language though: "Today, I realized that all of my closest friends have been forced to memorize at least 3 words in polish. By me. I quiz them every couple of weeks and get angry when they don't get them right. MLIP".

And others will teach you a little about how the language works: "Today, I realized my cats names all magically turned Polish even after giving them Americanized names. Marley has turned into Marlenka and Ivan is now Ivanek Gegusz Malutki, there's also one named Bushka. MLIP"

Yet another set of categories serves to highlight the wonderful customs people have come to know and love: "Today, i was sleeping over at my friends house and i kept saying im not hungry. 10 mins later her mom brings in a plate of little kanapki. Never underestimate a polish woman when it comes to food. MLIP"

Is this a classier Polish version of FML? Absolutely. And it works marvelously.

Bonus "better translation by me" for you to enjoy: "Today, My friend asked me out to "studniowka" ( POLISH PROM) . Excited i told my mom about it. Her response " jak to ciebie zaprosil? nie zna innej dziewczyny!!!" Thanks mom for caring :) MLIP"

The response was, "Why did he invite you? Does he not know any other girls?"

Stay classy.

Saving the world with smart meters

Krupo — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:03:00 GMT

I once alluded to instances of ignorant rants being granted precious space in newspapers. The most recent guilty party was written by a Toronto Sun columnist who misunderstands what "smart meters" are supposed to accomplish.

Before you ask why I bothered with the Sun, I must explain that I'm willing to read pretty much any newspaper if you give it to me for free. It's in some ways a bad habit, although I've learned to fight it by skimming over the worst whiners.

I'm exposed to enough poorly thought out thought processes as it stands when I travel by air.

Who was, after all, the genius who designed this sign at O'Hare?

Closer to home, an angry letter writer lauded this column, blasting the provincial government of Ontario for having the audacity to try and get people to conserve energy for all the right reasons. The angry protests about forthcoming doom caused by power prices going up by a fraction of a penny was simply too much to take.

Let's not talk about whether we're under-paying for our electricity in Ontario, though, I have a more important point to make: we're often overpaying for power, and smart meters are here to help.

Columnist Lorrie Goldstein should instead have realized that the "smart meters", by charging you different amounts of money depending on the time of day you are using electricity, shine a spotlight on a simple fact: many of us are paying too much for our electricity.

His false condemnations, and the collapse of his argument, stems from his failure to understand the basic principles of how our electricity system works. Try to avoid reading the comments to his post, where people feel free to prance along on his merry dance of ignorance, because it's depressing.

We all pay for power plants that are not used at their full capacity for the majority of the year.

The following links provide the real life facts, from a couple of the many websites that track, manage and operate our power grids.

First, the New York's ISO - kind people running New York State's power grid presents information in the bottom right corner with the current price of NY's power, plus how much power is being used. Late at night when people are already asleep, New York State uses around 14,000 MW - megawatts. This shoots up to over 20,000 MW later in the day. If you have friends who study or work in this field, you can easily learn to interpret the technical data that's publicly shared on the site.
Ontario has its own equivalent of the NYISO, the IESO (Independent Electricity System Operator) which provides an even more elegant graph which presents the same kind of stats on power demand. You may note that, interestingly enough, that Ontario's load happens to be similar to that of New York State. The IESO page also shows a demand graph for the entire day - both the forecasts, and the actual demand. Dig a little and you'll find many more graphs, showing trends in pricing too.

When you're done digging through those stats, remember that you've learned something very important: there is a very obvious "peak" period when most, if not all power plants in a given region have to run to keep up with our demand.

But, it represents only a short period out of the entire day.

And this is where Goldstein fell on his face: he neglected to address the fact that there is a difference of sometimes double the amount of power being used between the low and high use periods.

As you can imagine, we keep a giant reserve of spare power plants that are idle during low demand periods, which then fire up during the "peak" demand period when everyone's lighting up their lamps and computers, or working in factories.

Does that "spare capacity" cost us? Naturally, yes it does.

If we got more people to use power earlier in the day - and therefore reduce the size of that "peak" - would it mean we would need less power plants?

Yes, exactly.

So how do you save money? By building fewer new plants, not having as many people staffing them, and not having to sell off so much of your power at "discount" prices because you're using it more consistently throughout the day.

With "smart" appliances the near future promises us devices which will work harder when power is cheaper and cut back on their compressors, motors and chargers when costs are high. Having your air conditioner work at a lower speed or simply shut off while power prices are at a "high point" would go a long way towards helping power producers manage their supplies more effectively. This being a free society, no one's going to stop you from running your A/C at full blast if you really insist, but you'll be charged a fair price for putting a strain on the system when it can least handle it.

Would this create a "new" peak period? Not likely: although you would see a "smoother" demand curve, there will always be plenty of activities which we'll all tend to perform during peak periods - like firing up stoves to cook dinner and running those aforementioned air conditioners - which simply can't be "shifted" to low demand periods.

Will it take time for those savings to percolate through?

Yes - but you're old enough to know that there wouldn't be an automatic magic change in everything, right?

All those fantastic concepts will take time to take effect: we don't blow up a hundred power plants overnight, nor do we replace all our appliances in a a few days simply because we have a great new idea.

The changes take time, and there will be growing pains as people shift and adapt their power consumption habits.

Before anyone at the Sun starts yelping that this is in some way "unfair," tell me this: how is it fair that people who use power late at night - when the price of power is as cheap as a penny or less - have to still pay the full 5 or 8 cent price for their power?

It's not.

It's shameful that people chose to score cheap political points over trying to help the planet - and local economies - by instead making intellectually bankrupt arguments such as the following quote from his column: "In a sane world, we’d be paying less for electricity now because the recession has blunted demand and when demand goes down and supply goes up, prices should fall."

By this point you realize why that shallow sentence makes no sense: anyone with a basic knowledge of economics - or common sense - knows that power plants have "fixed costs." Yes, you're burning less coal when the power plants are not running at 100% or even if they're off, but you still have employees who keep that building operational. You still have repairs and maintenance bills even if it's turned off! And nuclear reactors simply don't get turned on and off like a light switch. Starting those generators up is a messy, complicated and expensive process which operators avoid as much as possible.

The power mix in Ontario, which the IESO website displays on its main page as well as in handy chart form, is composed of different types of generators that are easier and harder to "control". So the neat and tidy "sane" world which Goldstein calls for is indeed on the way - but it'll take time to get there: the province has long term plans to introduce more 'fleixible' power plants which can switch on and of at lower costs, but our desire to control costs and deficits also means construction will not take place overnight either.

Now you inadvertently know the basics about smart meters - so if a question on this topic appears on the UFE, and this being a popular topic in the news, it very well could! - don't get bogged down in these details.

You'll just need to explain the accounting issues. Which'll be simple since they all started to pop up in the back of your mind as your read through this, right?

Stupid angry letters from ignorant people are an excellent source of vitamins

Krupo — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:41:00 GMT

And by "vitamins" I mean, "topics to write about."

I had a very good university professor who shared opinion pieces and rants to the editor which were full of flaws - usually due the fact that the people submitting the articles did not have a clue about what they were talking about.

After we saw one particularly egregious example, I asked if he considered writing a letter to the editor pointing out the mistakes.

The answer was no, "life's too short."

And once you're a professor with tenure, flying to your country's capital on a weekly basis to testify before Senate committees on This Important Topic and That Giant Failure Committee, it makes sense.

As a student, I had time to complain, and writing poured forth.

These days I'm starting to pick my battles more, but sometimes you'll see that completely insane rant that screams to you, "this is stupid, and the many levels of "wrong" must be exposed with the burning light of knowledge and wisdom."

Kind of the like the Bat of Knowledge and the "You will learn" catchphrase from this site.

I've decided it makes sense, in terms of writing style, it makes sense to separate the introductory rant from the intelligent arguments, so look forward to an electrifying part two, where the failure is exposed in a cascade of knowledge.

Hope for 2009's unsuccessful UFE writers

Krupo — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 04:29:00 GMT

Every December, about a quarter or a fifth of the UFE writers from the previous September get the bad news - despite their best efforts, they didn't pass the exam.

It sucks, but there's no reason to give up.

Much advice will then flow forth, and one of the most repeated points - "figure out what went wrong" - will mean more than just asking yourself, "what happened during the three days of the exam?"

Equally important, if not moreso, if figuring out what happened before the exam.

Speaking very broadly, you have two groups - the people who studied the "right way", and people who studied the "wrong way."

Figuring out which group you 'belong' to can help you debrief what went wrong.

I'm not really sure what they're trying to warn you about doing with that cable car.

If you studied the "right way" - with a study buddy marking your cases, following a well-planned schedule up to the exam, avoiding spending too much or too little time, refreshing your "learning points" from earlier mistakes - and still failed, then odds are something went wrong during the exam. Reviewing what you did at the exam hall itself - were you distracted or just plain unlucky? - will probably be the focus of your debriefing.

On the other hand, if you studied the "wrong way" it can be both easier fix the more 'obvious' structural programs, and sometimes harder to admit.

Ask yourself if you did all the things the "right way" first: and be brutally honest with yourself, because lying to yourself, to paraphrase the cliche goes, doesn't help you at all.

If you studied too hard and burned out, was that because your plan was too aggressive, you didn't follow the plan, or didn't have one in the first place?

If you had a study buddy or a study group - did they help you, or were there problems that made it hard for you to concentrate?

Did other factors interrupt your studying - were you too worried about work, personal issues or other problems? Solve those problems before you try and study - if you can't, this will be a difficult stumbling block to overcome. The solution will of course depend on what kind of problem you're facing. If you lost your job, accept the fact it's gone, and focus on the exam. If you can't, it might actually be best to defer writing the exam and focus on resolving your problems first, instead of mixing your attention, which is just a recipe for catastrophe, of UFE-tastic-proportions.

Or did you just not study hard enough - not take the exam seriously enough?

Some people think they'll "wing it" the way they managed to in university. If you fell into this group, realize it fast - and accept the fact you're going to have to change your approach next year. A lucky few may fluke through this way, but this is probably one of the most common ways for someone to flub the exam in their first year.

These questions were inspired by the the discussion board at My CA Site discussing for more details on re-writing the UFE - check out that conversation for more details, or feel free to click here to leave comments.